It's great. I went to work and came back and this thread was full! (And I was like the 2nd or 3rd poster.. :-( .) But after reading pages upon pages of how unoriginal vampires can be... I've decided I'm going to give my own idea for a vampire novel a whirl. And I'm not going to even hint at the original part because that just gives it all away. In any case, I've been inspired to write by this thread, so that's always good. ~Lynn
They say that there are only seven original stories out there. I never cared. A story's originality comes from the writer, not the genre. Go for it, never let the masses dictate your imagination. good luck on your novel
Thanks. And I'd agree. A writer's individuality comes from their own writing- if they've never read what they are writing, then it is an original idea. And I bet there are people out there that dispute the originality of those "original" seven. ~Lynn
My favorite novels are all dark and depressing, but I have a particular love for zombies. The Zombie Survival Guide is one of the funniest and most original books to have come out recently, and I can't get enough of zombies. i watch all sorts of movies, a friend and I have a "Zombie Lecture Series" in our dorm, and we even have zombie-preparedness plans. It's great fun! =D
Well, I'm into Necromancers. They can raise the dead and use them for war- or servitude if they prefer. haha. So perhaps you and I will get along, what with our undead obsession?
Whoa, way to insult teenagers! And as sarcastic as that sounds, I applaud you. Heh heh. Anyway, I don't get why people call their weird creatures 'vampires' regardless of how different from the original they get.
That's a good question. I think any creature that must drink blood in order to survive is a vampire. So the vampire bat is a vampire. I believe it would die without blood. I'm not sure if it could survive on water and milk. So a leech is technically a vampire. However, the vampires I enjoy are sexy and have fangs, but I also like the ugly demon looking vampires with fangs, so long as they can look sexy by using mind control or something. Rose, do you like the slow, dumb, brain-eating zombies? I've never been into that sort of thing, but necromancers like warlocks that raise things back to life to serve them are cool. As long as what they are raising back to life are not slow, dumb, and brain eaters.
not, I'm not into zombies per say, just the idea of raising one. I think of Necromancers exactly as you described. Plus theyve gotta be tall and dark and possibly have long, white, awesome hair. lol. I think of Necromancers as raising ingenious skeletons that can bend to his will. Same with vampires. Theyve either gotta be sexy, or bad to the bone as it gets.
Haha, ya gotta agree with the comment though. Captivating as Twilight can be, the writing style is nothing short of juvenile
I am currently working on a novel that serves as a prequel to a visual novel that I have worked a little on as well. Both works involve vampires, although the visual novel won't be as heavily centered on them. I view vampires as most closely resembling human nobility, or at least the ones that are born vampires. For those that used to be human, there really is no template--I think they're all going to be unique. I do not think vampires are necessarily dark or evil. However, they can be mysterious and the ones that drink blood without any qualms are disturbing in my eyes. To take a life as easily as one eats a hamburger is creepy, no matter what context it is in. That being said, I find "exaggerated" vampires to be silly. To me, vampires are behaviorally similar to humans when they're not indulging in the thing that makes them so different. I envision them acting differently than "normal" people, but no more so than the way aristocratic humans act differently than "the average Joe". I think vampires would organize themselves into some kind of society, and would probably have their own culture just like any group of similar people. I don't think they would intermingle much with human society, except when necessary for "food" and other needs. On the other end, I find "human friendly" vampires to be equally silly. While I believe in some vampires who are able to resist their urge to drink blood enough to have a friendship with a human, they should be viewed much like wild animals that are brought up in captivity--their instincts still burn beneath the surface and you never know when they might succumb to them. If that element is removed, say by allowing vampires to substitute human blood with synthetic blood (*cough* True Blood *cough*) or animal blood (*cough* Twilight *cough*), you in essence remove their fangs and are left with something about as disappointing as a tiger with no teeth. I think of vampires as sexy, not demonic. To me they are models of perfection: born into immortality without the physical flaws and ailments of humanity. I don't think vampires are inherently seductive though. Being beautiful creatures, they certainly can be if they want to be, but I don't see seduction as something inherent to them. Personally, I don't see vampires seducing their prey. They don't need to. Besides, I think self-respecting vampires would find any sexual interaction with humans to be disgraceful, unless that interaction was a pure pillaging on their part. Vampires are intriguing and fun to work with, and I don't think anybody should let concerns over originality spoil their interest in using them in a story. At the broad level, everything has been done before. Whatever you write, try to bring a unique perspective to it and write it well. Anybody who pans your work just because it has vampires in it is pretty... well, stupid. They might as well pan your work for having a beginning, a building of suspense, a climax, a resolution, antagonists and obstacles for protagonists to overcome, romance, mystery....
why would a creature i.e vamp, not be demonic? i only ask, and don't mean to offend is that I am working on something close to me that you hit a nerve on. So explain, if you can how you get to there own category?
Agreed in every sense. I also would like to add that the original legends of vampires (the whole walking, dead corpse thing) is really no different from zombies. The regal, noble, superior version is more accurate to me.
Yeah, the original version of vampire mythology was far less interesting and full of lame "rules". No reflection? Repelled by holy water, crucifixes, and garlic? Kill them by putting a stake through their hearts while they sleep? Eh.... Death by sun and the need to drink blood are the only two rules I think really define vampires and shouldn't be tampered with too much. I admit I'm pretty flexible about the sun rule though. (Strong vampires can tolerate it, weak vampires get fried sort of thing.) First of all, how one categorizes vampires is not a subject that would ever offend me. I was simply being a little sarcastic. Anyway, I'll gladly give a brief explanation of why I think vampires are not demonic. Merriam-Webster definitions of demon: 1) a: an evil spirit b: a source or agent of evil, harm, distress, or ruin 2) usually daemon : an attendant power or spirit : genius 3) usually daemon : a supernatural being of Greek mythology intermediate between gods and men 4) one that has exceptional enthusiasm, drive, or effectiveness <a demon for work> Ignoring the other definitions, since they don't really fit how we're using the word "demon" here, lets take a look at the first definition. While vampires can be said to bring harm, distress, and ruin, I just don't see them as "evil". If you want to define a demon as anything that brings harm, then I'll quickly agree with you that vampires are demonic. However, natural disasters would qualify as "demonic" by that definition. While tornadoes, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc. certainly bring harm, distress, and ruin, I can't really bring myself to call them demonic. So basically, I consider a demon any sort of malevolent being that is out to hurt people intentionally. While some vampires could certainly fit that definition, as well as regular humans, I wouldn't go so far as to say that all vampires are demonic and out to hurt people. For whatever reason, a vampire has a strong need to drink human blood. Some may enjoy the pain they inflict on the humans that they drink blood from, others may be indifferent, and some may even be deeply conflicted over it. Because of that, I think it is incorrect to label vampires, in general, as demonic. That being said, this is what I think of when I think of demons! (I apologize if the image is too big and needs to be removed.)
I too hate all the rules, although i go back and forth on the sun thing. I think vampires are so strong and such that death by sunlight would be silly. But then, it adds more interest, and provides obstacles for them in stories, so it depends on my mood with the sunlight thing.
The vampires in my novel can freely walk in the sun. The reason there were so many stupid rules for vampires is because people back then viewed them as demonicly powered. Anything they believed worked on evil spirits, in turn worked on vampires. Garlic was believed to ward of evil because they viewed sickness as being caused by evil spirits, and so garlic is a natural remedy for many illnesses. Sage was another, although I don't think sage is a natural remedy for anything, so I am unsure how it came to be used against evil. Evil spirits can't cross rivers, and so in early vampire legends they to could not cross rivers, or any running water like a stream. Evil spirits can't come out in the day because they are creatures of the night. All holy relics were used against evil spirits. Holy water, bible, crosses, pentagrams, etc. Because Europe was very Christian, pentagrams never became a tool against vampires. Silver was considered a holy metal that could kill evil or get rid of it. Fire was basically divine and could kill just about anything. I did away with all religious ideas when it came to my vampires. None of that stuff hurts them. My vampires are basically a powerful extraterrestrial race that are stronger, faster, smarter, and have better senses than humans. They have pearl-like pale skin. They can bend nature, meaning they can manipulate it. The powerful ones can make people sick. They can walk on air, cause a flower to grow or whither in seconds, run on water, etc. They also can grow wings from between their shoulder blades and fly. Their skin is tough and only armor piercing rounds can penetrate it. Oh and they have no idea how long they can live. The oldest of them is 200,000 years old.
In your story, can vampires be born that way? And if so, at what age to they stop maturing? This is something I'm still contemplating
Good question. I didn't have to answer that question in the first novel because it never came up. But, yes they are born that way, and they don't know if they stop maturing. The oldest of them look about 33, and he is 200,000 years old. At first they age quickly, then aging slows down. Michael the MC is 2,613 years old, and he looks 17. Once they reach puberty the aging process slows down rapidly. By the time they are 200 years old they have reached puberty. According to the history on their planet, they have not always been vampires. A powerful man came to their planet about 200,000 years ago and started to turn them into vampires. Those that would not convert became blood donors. They later made laws that forbid the drinking of blood directly from the humans. And vampires from that point on had to buy blood from humans. The humans don't have to sell their blood if they don't want to. In order to get the feeling like they are drinking blood from a human, one of them will drink a lot of human blood, which remains in their veins unchanged for about an hour. Then another sinks his fangs into her, sucking the human blood from her. Sorry, that was a long answer.
That sounds about right... see, I'm having my vampires be part of a curse (as explained in earlier posts). The 7th son or 7th daughter born into any family is a vampire. yet, vampires are immortal. YET, they obviously age... I'm so confused on how to do this...
I handled it scientifically. Their anatomy is similar to a humans, but their cells constantly regenerate. The reason humans begin to fall apart is because the telomeres weaken, so to speak, as human cells continue to reproduce. That is one reason at least. So the microscopic parts of my vampires perfectly replicate, or almost perfectly. If every microscopic part in our body perfectly replicated we should be able to live forever, considering we don't get our heads blown off or something.
I was contemplating, the other day, why it would be more helpful to writers if we were all more advanced in science. I myself was fabulous in language arts and such, and fine arts, but science, though i was alright in it, was never a very strong point for me. I wish it was. It would make brainstorming for ideas easier, and cause me to doubt my ideas less. lol. Because I would know for sure: "This works this way, this would make sense, this would not" and so on.
There's like eight Howling movies. The first one is a masterpiece, but the sequels range from "so bad its good" to "I can't believe I just sat through all of that." The third one has werewolves with pouches though...brilliance!!
